Page 10 - bne_newspaper_April_20_2018

The Regions This Week
April 20, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 10
Eastern Europe
Russian telecom watchdog Roskomnadzor could not effectively enforce a countrywide ban on Telegram messenger, disturbing the work of dozens of unrelated services as a result of blanket blocking of eighteen Amazon and Google IP address clusters and close to 20mn IP addresses altogether. "The battle of shell and armour is being waged," the head of the watchdog Alexander Zharov said.
The Russian government believes counter- sanctions currently revised by the parliament will not include limitations on exports of titanium to Boeing and Airbus, Russian Minister of Industry and Trade told Rossia 24 TV channel. "Why would we take decisions negatively affecting our producers, our companies,” he commented.
A Moscow court seized over $1mn in cash
from Kremlin-connected oligarch and head
of Summa Group Ziyavudin Magomedov and
his brother and ex-senator of North Caucasus Republic of Dagestan Magomed Magomedov. The move is seen as politically motivated.
The European Union absorbs 36.5% of Ukraine’s agricultural exports at the moment. In January-February, exports of Ukrainian agrarian products to the EU increased by 28.1% year-on-year, or by $224.7mn, and amounted to $1.025bn. The good result is due to the start of a new EU quotas year.
Russian meat and agro major Cherkizovo
is likely to postpone its $150mn SPO on the Moscow Exchange from May to the autumn due to the latest round of US sanctions. HeadHunter human resources firm has also announced it is canceling a planed IPO on NASAQ for at least $250mn.
The IMF revised upwards its forecast for Belarus's economic growth in 2018 to 2.8% from 0.7%. The country's economy grew last
year after two years of recession.
Russia's strong public and external finances will help to shield the broader economy from the impact of new US sanctions and will protect the sovereign credit profile, Moody's Investors Service said.
Russia's largest real estate developer PIK said it has postponed a placement of RUB14bn ($230mn) bonds "indefinitely" due to "current market conditions”. PIK's leverage metrics are unlikely to suffer as the company released solid operational cash flow under IFRS cutting net debt by RUB26bn to RUB15bn as of end of 2017.
Russian electronics retailers M.Video and Eldorado controlled by Safmar Group of billionaire Mikhail Gutseriev are in talks with retailer MediaMarktSaturn owned by German Ceconomy that might be included in their mega- merger.
The supervisory board of Russia's leading bank Sberbank suggested paying 36% of net IFRS profit for 2017 in dividends, increasing the payout from 25% paid for last year, but stopping short of increasing it to 50% of profit. Ordinary and preferred shares yielded annual return of 36.9% and 54.9%, respectively.
Russians spent €1.1bn on international real estate in 2017, up by 26% y/y, as the volume
of cross-border transfers topped to $870mn, according to the central bank – the first growth in outbound real estate investment in four years.
Elevated oil prices, ruble weakness and
focus on lower taxed barrels will improve the profitability of Russian oil and gas companies in 2018, Moody's Investors Service argues in its report "Oil & Gas - Russia: Profitability is set to improve in 2018 with credit enhancing effects across the sector”.